Basketball, Birth Control and Bloggers: Pgh Women Round Up

From today's Tribune Review comes word that a local young woman is a finalist for a slot on the USA's womens basketball team. Charal Allen, a graduate of Monessen, and current senior at Notre Dame has this to say about her accomplishment:

"This means the world to me," Allen said. "Not only do I have the opportunity to
represent the U.S., but also my family, my school and everyone around me
that has been so supportive -- I'm just very excited to have had the
opportunity to tryout.
"I'm going to go and work as hard as I can, bring my game, and do
whatever I have to so I can make the team."

I am soooo not an athlete and don't really follow sports that closely, but I think it is important that women and girls have equal opportunities to participate and hone their skills. Young women like Charal illustrate why it was so important to get Rene Portland out of Penn State. Go Charal!

Today the FDA approved Lybrel, the first birth control pill intended to stop our menstruation all together. It will hit the market in July. The pill contains a low dose of two hormones already widely used in birth-control pills, ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel. Some are lauding the end of menstrual issues; others are concerned about the medicalization of menstruation, especially given the lack of understanding of the long-term effects.

Does this give women control over our bodies? Consider this - with Lybrel, it is difficult to determine you are pregnant (no BC pill is 100% effective) b/c there's no missed period. So conceivably you could discover a pregnancy in your second trimester. What would this mean for having access to abortions in states with restrictive laws? Huh.

Now I am fortunate not to need birth control (being a lesbian has its perks), but I do take birth control pills to treat endometriosis. I sure like having things regulated, minimal pain or discomfort, and less severe PMS symptoms. But I'd see no need to eliminate my period altogether. There's no allure for me. I use organic tampons and pads so I worry less about inserting unnecessary toxins and chemicals into my body.

The Chicago Foundation for Women has both sides of the debate.

I was going to write about women and blogging, but I'm saving that for a separate post. Your thoughts?

Other Women Bloggers

OK, so we need a list of whom to invite. I don't know many ...

Emilia at Transburgh
PittGirl
Lyndsey
Gloria

OK, that's all I know or at least all I can think of right now. Let's make a list and then we can send an invite. Plus post invites on our respective blogs. We do have to confirm in some way that people unfamiliar to us are, in fact, women. And by women, I mean those whose gender identity is female, not just those who are women-born. I feel very strongly about that.

Who else should come on board? I think its reasonable to say that they should have an existing blog of their own (or participate in one as a blogger, not commenter) to participate here. Perhaps further down the road we can invite potential bloggers to join. What do you think?

Sue

Hey!

Sorry that it's taken me a while to post, but I am looking forward to having a home to write more about women's issues that don't fit as comfortably into 2pj's format.

I do think that inviting other female bloggers now would be the way to go.

It's hard enough to keep current at one blog, so the more women invited to blog here, the better the chances of someone being around to keep a daily conversation going.

Ladies ...

This isn't exactly the rousing start I envisioned ... maybe we should table the idea for awhile? Or invite other female bloggers to get involved? Whom? Do we need something more splashy to excite 'em? Hmmmm .....

Mission Statement

I think we need a statement of purpose.

What is it that we want this blog to achieve? To discuss? Are there resources we want to alert people to? To raise awareness?

Etc.

Hello?

Welcome to the Pittsburgh Women's Blogging Society. Founders include Agent Ska of the Ideas Bucket, Maria of 2 Political Junkies and myself, Sue, of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents.

It all began with an excuse to get Maria to have coffee with me. I dubbed it the Pittsburgh Women's Blogging Conference and suggested we invite Agent Ska. Next thing you know, another blog is born. A telling comment about our blogging priorities is that we still haven't had that coffee. Yet.

The society is open to all women bloggers in the Pittsburgh region, political and non-political. If you are interested in joining, email me at mailto:sue@sitnscoop.com. No secret handshakes. No membership dues. And before the men start complaining, you have the entire free world so stop complaining about our little corner of the Burgosphere. :-)